Six months on from the Energy Savvy Families program, Hope Soeters’ family reduced their electricity use by 31%

What was your household situation and energy use like before you started the program?
As a growing family with two teenage girls and a hectic schedule, our energy bill had slowly increased to a noticeable point. We were given the chance to participate in the Energy Savvy Families program earlier this year and my husband and I decided to give it a go to see if we could improve our energy consumption for our household.

The program gave us handy regular tips on how to save energy within the household. We could also monitor our daily consumption in order to reduce our usage, which worked perfectly for us. Switching to a monthly bill instead of quarterly has also been more effective for our budget and it’s no longer a worry when our monthly bill is received via email. I would highly recommend this to young and growing families as I learned so much about small ways to reduce energy in the house, which means a lot come bill time!

If you think back, what interested you initially to sign up to the program?
The option to switch to a digital meter with a monthly bill instead of a quarterly bill.

What did you learn or discover as a result of going through the Energy Savvy Families program?
We received regular emails containing handy tips on how to save energy, which has effectively helped us be mindful of our energy use and brought our overall monthly bill down.

How did other members of your household (if any) engage in Energy Savvy Families?
Our children got on board and participated in the Reduce Your Juice games, which helped them learn how to save energy.

Did you have any stand-out benefits from doing Energy Savvy Families?
With the material sent out and the tips we received, we have learned how to conservatively use electricity and we are now more mindful of what we use in the house. It has been a great success participating in the program.

Now you’ve finished Energy Savvy Families, how confident are you to keep your energy bills down over the longer term?

Over the last six months we have seen our energy bill reduce considerably. We continue to look at ways to ensure our energy consumption in the household remains at a reasonable usage level, so we don’t end up with a massive bill at the end of each month.

What feature of Energy Savvy Families appealed to you the most or was most useful and why?
The monthly billing, digital meter, and receiving rewards such as the power saving board to help us reduce our energy consumption.